Rahul Gandhi seeks SIT probe into CBSE OSM controversy, alleges result tampering

The controversy surrounding the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system intensified after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged 'massive tampering' in board exam results and demanded an independent judicial inquiry along with an SIT probe into the matter. In a post on platform X, Gandhi questioned the role of COEMPT, the company linked to the digital evaluation system, and alleged similarities with the earlier Telangana Globarena controversy. Not only did he accuse the government of compromising the future of lakhs of students, but also demanded accountability over giving contracts and implementation of the evaluation mechanism.

Several Class 12 students alleged discrepancies in uploaded answer sheets and a 19-year-old ethical hacker Nisarga Adhikary claimed to have identified vulnerabilities in the portal’s login and authentication systems in February, way before CBSE started checking copies. Adhikary claimed he was able to bypass parts of the CBSE OSM portal’s login and access-control systems and posted detailed allegations on social media explaining the purported vulnerabilities. He alleged that parts of the portal’s authentication logic were exposed through browser-side code and claimed the existence of a “master password” embedded in publicly accessible JavaScript files and even reported them to CERT-In earlier this year.

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After it came to media's attention, CBSE denied the OSM portal breach and claimed that the evaluation facility has a ‘different URL’. Responding to the controversy, CBSE clarified that the cited domain “cbse.onmark.co.in” was merely an internal testing platform containing sample data and not the actual portal used for evaluation work. In its statement, the board said no actual evaluation data, marks, or student records were stored on the cited testing portal and maintained that no security breach had been identified in the live evaluation system used for answer-sheet assessment.

However, Adhikary rejected CBSE’s explanation and claimed he possessed screen recordings and CERT-In acknowledgements supporting his allegations.

A similar controversy recently surfaced at Nagpur University, where students alleged result errors, withheld marks, hall-ticket discrepancies and technical glitches after the university shifted to Coempt Eduteck for examination management.

Questions raised over evaluation system

In the post on platform X, Rahul Gandhi alleged that “millions of children and their parents” had been left shocked due to tampering in CBSE examination results. He questioned why the contract was awarded to COEMPT despite alleged controversies associated with Globarena in Telangana in 2019.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that CBSE awarded the OSM contract to COEMPT despite the company’s alleged links to earlier Telangana evaluation controversies. In a video, Rahul Gandhi said, "The company was earlier known as Globarena and allegedly carried out similar scams twice before in Telangana -once during the 2019 board exams and again in 2023. The same OSM-based errors were reportedly linked to the deaths by suicide of 23 students. This was public information and was known to everybody, yet for some hidden reason, CBSE chose the same company again."

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Rahul Gandhi's post on platform X

The Congress leader also demanded answers on:

• Why the CBSE contract was awarded to the company?
• Whether rules and procedures were bypassed?
• Why background checks were allegedly not conducted?
• The nature of the company’s links with the government.

The allegations, however, remain political claims at this stage, with CBSE denying any breach in its actual evaluation system.

Answer-sheet mismatch, portal glitches

COMEPT is not the only issue for which CBSE has come under scrutiny. The board had repeatedly extended the deadline for applying for photocopies of answer sheets and revaluation due to technical glitches in the portal. A Class 12 student claimed that the handwriting in the uploaded physics answer sheet did not match his own and raised questions over whether the correct answer copy had been evaluated. The controversy quickly spread across social media, triggering debate among students, parents, and educators. Responding to this, CBSE admitted mistake in this case and shared the student’s answer sheets over email.

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Following the controversy and complaints regarding technical glitches in the re-evaluation portal, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan directed experts from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur to assist CBSE in strengthening and improving the portal infrastructure.

CBSE has received more than 4,04,319 applications from students seeking scanned copies of evaluated answer sheets. Over 11.31 lakh answer books were requested for Class 12 examinations, out of which nearly 8.98 lakh had already been furnished to students.